Automation

Bug settings

Bug Settings allows you to customize how you view and work with bugs. You can set permissions, configure email notifications, set up business rules and much more.

Benefits of Bug Tracking Software

Get a complete visibility of unresolved issues with views filtered by severity, category etc.

Give structure to how bugs are handled by defining a cycle based on stages that can be customized.

Motivate team members to fix issues with access to resolutions, history, and comments for each issue.

Automate reminding and notifying members in charge of fixing bugs by setting notifications.

Improve productivity by exactly knowing which bugs are reproducible, to what level.

Bug Settings can be accessed from the global setup. Click in the upper-right corner and select the Bug Settings module. You can also navigate to Projects >Bugs >(in the upper-right corner) > Bug Settings.

Configuration

You can set permissions, configure bug prefix and set up an email ID to receive bug related emails.

Bug Prefix

With multiple projects running simultaneously and numerous bugs being reported, it is important to name bugs appropriately so that they are easy to identify. Bug Prefix lets you append a suitable name to your bug so that you know which project it belongs to.

Client Permissions

Clients submit bugs when they face glitches or issues. Though the developers work on them internally, clients may want to see the progress or even add value by providing inputs. You can opt to show bugs to clients in Client Permissions. You can choose to show either all external bugs, bugs submitted by that particular user, or bugs submitted by the particular client company.

Select Assign external Bugs to client users if they need to work on the bugs. This will show the client user's name in Assign To.

Click Update to save changes.

Email Settings

Configure the email address to let users submit bugs via email.

Enter the email ID where you need the bug emails sent.

Click Update to confirm.

Configure your email client to forward emails to the mail alias given in the Email Settings.

Customization

Using the Customization settings you can set up email templates for bug notifications and SLAs, create custom fields to capture data as per requirement, and configure bug status and workflow. You can also create a form to submit bugs from your website and even link bugs which are related.

Status and Workflow

Customize the status of your bugs to track them with ease. Status could be as simple as Open, In Progress and Resolved. Or go for multiple statuses as per your organization's requirement. You can even set the sequence to ensure the workflow is streamlined and no steps are missed out.

Web To Bug Form

Click here to create your first Web to Bug form link will open the form.

Enter a Form Name.

Give a Return URL. Users will be redirected to this page after they submit the form.

Enter the Form/Web page Url where the form is to be hosted.

Select a default Flag for the bugs.

Choose Default Fields to capture data as per the project requirements.

Click Generate iFrame.

Copy the code and embed it in your website to host the Web To Bug Form.

Link Bugs

Link bugs and create dependencies between them. You can associate bugs based on a criterion, restrict bug closure, set dependencies, duplicate, and clone bugs. And you can link bugs using the default link types or you can create your own links.

Create a new Link Type

Edit or Delete Link Type

Hover over the link type and select edit/delete to make changes. Make edits and click Save to update the changes. To delete a link type, Select Delete and click Ok. Default link types cannot be edited or deleted.

Associate or Link Bugs

Navigate to Projects> Bugs.

Select the bug you want to link.

Click Link Bugs.

Select Link Type.

Search for the bug you want to associate.

Click Link Bugs.

Link Name

Description

Blocks

Indicates that you cannot close a blocked bug without closing the bug that is blocking it. This clause is applicable only for bugs that are linked to the link type as blocks.

Example: If bug A is linked with bug B using 'blocks' association, then bug A must be closed before bug B is closed.

Depends on

Indicates that you cannot close a dependent bug without closing the bug that it depends on. This clause is applicable only for bugs that are linked to the link type as: depends on.

Example: If bug A is linked with bug B, using 'depends' association, then bug B must be closed before bug A is closed.

Is related to

Indicates that you can associate bugs that are related based on some criteria. It does not restrict the closing of any bugs.

Is duplicate of

Indicates that you can associate one or more bugs logged for the same problem as duplicates. However, closing one bug does not close its duplicates.

Is clone of

Indicates that you can clone and associate bugs.

Example: If you create bug B by cloning bug A, then bug B is associated as a clone of bug A.

Edit or Remove the Bug Link

Select the bug and navigate to Link Bug tab.

Hover over the linked bug and click .

Select Edit Link/Remove Link.

Fields

The BugTracker has data fields to capture information pertaining to bugs or issues in your projects. For those of you who would like additional data to better resolve the issue, BugTracker provides Custom Fields to gather data specific to your business requirements.

The fields can be text, numeric or date. You can also create a prefixed list of values to choose from. You can edit, delete, reorder, and hide these fields according to project requirements. Portal Owner and Admins can perform these tasks.

Edit Fields

Based on different business needs, fields can be modified to show values that are suitable to your workflow. To edit the field name, hover over the field and click edit. Enter a name and click Save. To edit the values shown in a field, navigate to Fields and click Edit Values. You can modify an existing value or add new values to the field.

Reorder Fields

Navigate to Projects> Bugs > (in the upper-right corner) > Bug Settings > Fields > Reorder Fields. Drag and drop the fields to reorder them. If you want to hide a field, hover over and deselect it. You can reorder the values of a field if required. Click Reorder and drag and drop the values to change their order. Click Save Order to save the changes. You can also sort the values alphabetically. Click Alphabetical Sort and then click Save Order.

Add Custom Fields

Navigate to Projects> Bugs > (in the upper-right corner) > Bug Settings > Fields > Custom Fields and click Add Custom Field. Specify the field details and select the required users. Specify the data type of the field (Text or Numeric or Date) and set the value if needed. If you select Pick List, you must add items to your picklist. If you mark a custom field as mandatory, the bug will not be saved if you don't enter or select a value.

If you select Pick List, you must add items to your picklist.

If you select User Picklist, you can select the project users or choose Select All to add all the users in the project.

You can also add client users if you select Client Users in Permission. And based on this User Picklist feature, you can create new custom views and define business rules.

Associate an Email template to a bug notification

Select one of the existing email templates from the drop-down. Else, click Create New Email template to create a new Email template for the event.

Specify the users to.

You can select more than one person to notify. i.e.You can choose Assignee, Reporter, Project Owner, or any of the project users from the Users section,or any of the users from the User Picklists section accordingly.

Click Save to proceed.

You can also associate an Email template to an SLA.

Edit/Delete an Email template

Hover the mouse over the required Email Template.

Click the or link.

Update the necessary fields and click Save orconfirm to delete.

Note:

The mail content of the Email template allows 32000 characters.

Inline images can be uploaded in the mail content whereas videos cannot be embedded in the Email template. However, you can link your video in the email template.

If an associated Email template is deleted, then the default Email Template will be used for bug Notifications and SLAs.

If a deleted Custom Field's placeholder exists in an email template, it will not be replaced by any default field.

Action Performer placeholder represents the user who performs the action. i.e.the person who files the bug, updates the status of the bug etc.,

In SLA's escalation mails, the Action Performer placeholder is replaced by the project owner's name.

Automation

All bugs pose unique challenges. However, repetitive functions can be automated by setting up business rules, SLAs, webhooks, and notifications.

Click Submit to check whether the user will get notifications when the specific bug event is triggered.

Business Rules

Business Rules allows you to organize the bugs more efficiently by setting criteria that match your project requirement. Business Rules are applied to bugs based on the rule list order when there are multiple business rules. You can add, edit and deactivate a business rule.

Select the field and enter the value to update when the business rule is triggered.

Setup webhooks to call them when the rule is triggered.

Click Save Rule.

Edit or Delete Business Rule

Hover over the business rule and click or to edit or delete the rule.

Reorder Business Rule

Click

Drag and drop business rule to reorder them.

Click Save Order.

Webhooks

Webhooks are a developer-friendly module that facilitates automated HTTP notifications to third party applications from Zoho Projects. Using Webhooks, you can configure your own HTTP URLs and associate them to specific business rules in order to automate the entire notification process related to bugs. To know more about Webhooks, click here.

Service Level Agreement (SLA

Service Level Agreement (SLA) defines the level of service that can be expected from the service provider to the customer. Zoho Projects supports SLA and it is user-defined. You can create escalation procedures in terms of which issues are subject to escalation, the escalation criteria to be applied, and the action to execute upon a specific escalation level. SLAs are applied automatically to tickets that match the defined parameters or criteria. You can also send alerts to selected resources when there is a potential SLA violation.

Create an SLA

Select the desired option for the rule to Execute On and then click Add targets for this SLA.

Select the criteria as to when the SLA must be executed for the bugs.

Note:

You can choose your criterion from the various options that are displayed.You can set targets to view only bugs based on Modified Date, Last Closed Date, Milestone, Severity, and so on.

Select the due date or the target time for the SLA.

Note:

In Target Action, you can choose Close Before or Resolve Before and set their respective target field and target time based on the Calendar or Business hours.

If you choose Resolve Before, the custom date field is also displayed in the Target Field. This helps in escalating the bug if it is not resolved within the set target time.

If you choose Close Before, it helps in escalating the bug, if it is not closed within the set target time.

Specify Escalate onas to when to escalate the bug. You can specify a maximum of four levels if the ticket exceeds the target time.

Specify Escalate to as to whom to escalate the bug. You can choose Assignee, Project Owner, or any of the project users from Users section, or any of the users from the User PickList section.

Select an existing Email Template from the drop-down or create a new Email template. Learn More about Email Templates.

Configure the action to be taken for the escalation. You can specify a maximum of 10 actions.

Click Save.

The escalation levels are highlighted in color next to each bug in the List view and bug details view.

SLA Notifications

Any update to a bug will be notified to all the concerned users.

If there is a breach in SLA, the escalation will appear in Feeds.

The updates can also be found in the Notifications tab.

Validations for escalation

An SLA is constructed to achieve the expected output or target within a defined time period. So, any SLA will have time and a target for the time, constructed with various criterion. An SLA assures that issues will be closed within a defined time period.

You can have more than one criteria for the same issue. However, an issue is tracked based on the first criteria that it matches in the existing SLA list.

You can create your escalation workflow for issue transitions based on your business values, and set different escalation schedules for critical and non-critical issues.

Any combination of criteria is possible.

You can configure notification emails to be escalated for any issues after it's target time, to the required project member or the bug owner or the assignee.

Example:
If an issue is not closed within it's defined target time, the SLA that matches the issue will trigger the escalation actions.

Edit / Delete an SLA

Click and modify the SLA and save. You can also click to delete the SLA permanently.

Reorder SLAs

Click and then drag and drop the SLAs and save the new SLA order.

Deactivate SLA

Click Deactivate to deactivate the SLA.

More about SLAs

Decrease the customer waiting time for any issues by defining appropriate SLAs.

Construct well-defined SLAs for increased customer satisfaction. A good SLA must be based on a constant parameter that does nor vary during the bug's life cycle like the Title, Reporter, Module, Submitted Date, etc. Parameters like Status, Severity, Is it Reproducible, etc are subject to change.

Automatically assign SLAs to tickets based on the various defined parameters.

Manage SLA with multi-level escalations, if the ticket is not closed within the defined target time.

Activate or Deactivate SLAs you have created.

Send email alerts to selected resources when there is a potential SLA violation.